The present invention is directed to back belts, and more particularly the varieties which are used in warehouses by people who are constantly lifting, nurses in hospitals and operating rooms, and delivery personnel. An important purpose of the belt is to assist in applying restraint to the users so that the back does not get into an awkward position prior to lifting and thus induce damage to the spine.
Back belts abound in the prior art. Representative of such a back belt is Applicant""s own U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,261, issued Sep. 15, 1992, relating to a lifting type belt. The subject belts when worn pursuant to a rigid safety program can significantly reduce the injuries in backs in various applications where lifting is involved irrespective of the weight. For example, in child care environments, quite often one of the attendants will lift a 15 to 20 pound child but, when the back is curved improperly, injury can result.
In addition, the standard back belts primarily employ wraps which extend laterally from a compression pad or back pad which is worn in the lumbar portion of the back. The wraps typically secure themselves one to the other with a releasable securable material well known by the Trademark VELCRO(copyright). The back of the belt itself, and more particularly the compression pad, is somewhat complicated to manufacture and the positioning of the components, including stays and webbing which secures the stays in place, often times become misaligned. Moreover, the material employed can result in migrating upwardly or downwardly or rolling on the torso of the user. This can result in misorientation of the back belt, and stabilization of the spine, as should be done.
Furthermore, depending upon body shape and sizing, the stays may position themselves in a way to cause some discomfort to the users, and not perfectly positioned for optimum function. In use, the stays whether formed from plastic or steel, exert pressure against the threads of the stay pockets which are sewn in place. When such threads become worn, a workout or tearing of the threads can occur, rendering the back support less effective. Finally, but not all inclusively, the gripper material utilized for inside contact against the clothing of the wearer rubs off with time and wear and thus the grippers become ineffective. A concomitant problem arises from the fact that the surface area of the gripper material is generally insufficient to hold the back support in position without excessive movement.
The present invention stems from the new use of a formable plastic polyolefin material; one preferred embodiment being sold by the Trademark VOLARA(copyright). The plastic foam is formable by a variety of techniques which are available. While the material is semi-rigid, it is sewable and commonly available with laminations to a variety of fabrics. Thus, the subject formable material can have one fabric laminated to one surface, and a different fabric laminated to the other surface.
In the method of the invention, which relates to the product of the invention, the formable material, with the fabric laminated preferably to both surfaces, is either cut to shape by standard clickers, heat cutting, or other means and then inserted into a die mold where it is formed by compression and heat. The compression and heat are primarily directed to forming channels for the stays to be later inserted, but also to form the lateral edge tongues and pockets for securement of the inner belt ends.
The VOLARA(copyright) material in the present invention is desirably laminated on both sides with the external laminate being a nylon, a mesh, sewable fabric. On the other hand, the inside laminate is a coated non-slip copolymer material.
Once the compression pad is formed to shape, the stays are placed in position in the stay channels and webbing applied over the stays and stitched to form a pocket for the stays along with the channel, and thereby secure the integrity of the back portion of the lift belt. The outer peripheral portion of the entire unit has a ribbing applied and the same, by way of binding effect, assists in securing the components together.
A supplementary embodiment of the invention relates to the utilization of a detachable back belt, which is the subject of Applicant""s U.S. Pat. No. 5,656,021. It permit the advantages of supplementary belt usage when heavy loads are contemplated, and also has the advantage of being separately cleaned.
In view of the foregoing, it is a principle object of the present invention to provide a back belt with a new type back support compression pad member which is sufficiently integral due to the molding of the compression pad that uniformity in product will result in manufacture.
A related object is to form a back belt with a compression pad portion in which the stays are spaced from the back of the user, thereby eliminating undesirable pressure points and chaffing.
Yet another object of the present invention looks to the method of forming a back belt in which the inner wraps and outer wraps can be secured to the back belt portion, thereby eliminating a significant amount of wrap material.
Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to form a thin back belt which enhances its appearance on the user of the belt.